MSU Institute and NOAA Renew Partnership

The review, which rated NGI's accomplishments as "outstanding," continues the cooperative partnership between NOAA and a group of five Gulf region research institutions led by MSU. Other member institutions include Florida State and Louisiana State universities, University of Southern Mississippi, and the Dauphin Island Sea Laboratory near Mobile, Ala.

NGI conducts research in four primary areas: ecosystem management, geospatial data integration and visualization in environmental science, climate change and climate variability effects on regional ecosystems, and coastal hazards. (A list of research projects is available at www.ngi.msstate.edu/research .)

Total agency funding varies annually and is based on the number of projects the university proposes and NOAA approves, subject to the availability of appropriated funds.

"NGI is NOAA's collaborative institute for the northern Gulf of Mexico," said NGI director Robert Moorhead. "When the Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred, our scientists in our institutions were able to bring decades of knowledge, experience, and data to correctly predict the immediate impact, and to measure and predict the long term impacts.

"The partnerships that NGI has nurtured have had a positive impact on the Gulf Coast region, and the novel multi-institutional cooperative institute model that NGI initiated has enabled those partnerships to flourish," added Moorhead, who also is the Billie Ball Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering in MSU's Bagley College of Engineering.

The partnership has enabled scientists at the member institutions to receive support for research projects that may involve NOAA scientists, primarily at the NOAA Gulf Coastal Services Center and NOAA National Coastal Data Development Center. Both centers are co-located with the NGI Program Office at the John C. Stennis Space Center in Hancock County.

NGI also works closely with the NOAA Southeast Fisheries Science Center in Pascagoula, and the NOAA Lower Mississippi River Forecast Center in Slidell, La.

"The Northern Gulf Institute is a valuable partner to NOAA in the Gulf of Mexico through its high quality research, innovative online data products, and educational outreach efforts responsive to needs in the region," said Alexander MacDonald, NOAA Research Council chairman.

"NGI research continues to help the region assess the impact of last year's Deepwater Horizon oil spill and other ongoing ecosystem stressors and was an important partner in NOAA's response capability during the spill," observed MacDonald, who also is deputy assistant administrator of the NOAA Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research.

NGI was established in 2006 as a NOAA cooperative institute, and is one of 18 nationwide. Located at universities with strong research programs relevant to its mission, the institutes provide resources and opportunities that extend beyond the agency's own research capabilities and capacity.

In addition to promoting research, education, training, and outreach aligned with NOAA's mission, the institutes also coordinate resources among all non-government partners and promote the involvement of students and post-doctoral scientists in NOAA-funded research.

This unique setting provides NOAA the benefit of working with complementary capabilities of a research institution that contribute to agency-related sciences ranging from satellite climatology and fisheries biology to atmospheric chemistry and coastal ecology.

Mississippi State is online at www.msstate.edu.